Barbados: Combermere School ran away with the boys’ and girls’ titles at the just completed Esther Maynard Zone of the 2023 Barbados Secondary School Athletic Championships (BSSAC).
Barbados Children Directory took to Facebook and stated that Combermere won the girls’ division with 463 points, just ahead of Christ Church Foundation School (CCFS), who was a very close second with 453 points. Alleyne School took third place with 360 points followed by Alexandra School 197 points, St. George Secondary School 182 points, Grantley Adams Memorial School & Graydon Sealy both earned 85 points while Providence School collected 13 points.
In the boys’ division, Combermere School had a bigger margin at the top with 480 points, as they led CCFS on 415 points and Alleyne School 395 points. St. George Secondary School was fourth with 215 points followed by Alexandra School 178 points, Grantley Adams Memorial School with 95 points, Graydon Sealy Secondary School 92 points and Providence School 18 points.
There were some outstanding performances during the two-day meet including that of Aniya Nurse of the Alleyne School who broke three zonal records. On the first day Nurse, competing in the girls’ under-17 division, set a new time of 12.08 seconds in the 100m to replace the old time of ???? and she later won the 400m in record time of 56.67 seconds replacing the old time of 58.98 seconds. Nurse was back in record form on the second day when she slammed the field in the 200m in 24.61 seconds, replacing the old record of 24.85 seconds.
Chanecia Bryan of Combermere set a new record in the under-15 girls’ 400m with a winning time of 58.24 to replace the old time of 59.95 seconds. She also comfortably won the junior girls’ 1500m and 800m races. Jymarian Mallett of Foundation recorded three individual victories in the zone meet. Competing in the boys’ under-17 division he ran to victory in the 800m, 400m and 1500m races.
Leemiah London of the Alleyne School also dipped below the previous record in Under-15 girls 200m.59.78 to replace second. She was also the winner of the girls’ under-15 long jump with a mark of 4.96m.
Combermere’s Aragorn Straker completed the zonal sprint double when he crossed the line first in 21.85 seconds in the under-20 boys’ 200m and he ran to victory in 10.93 seconds in the under-20 boys’ 100m race. Another Combermerian, Zakaiya Hunte, set a new time of 65.17 seconds in the girls’ under-20 400m replacing the old record of 66.39 seconds.
Lakazia Hunte of St George Secondary School won the under-13 girls’ 400m and the 800m races while Kiami-Rae Oxford of Alexandra soared to a new zone record of 1.50m in the under-13 girls’ high jump to erase the previous record of 1.47m.
